1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to conference servers, and more specifically to a conference server simplifying management of subsequent meetings for participants of a meeting in progress.
2. Related Art
Conference servers are often used for planning and conducting meetings. Planning typically entails indicating to a conference server the duration (possible start and end times) of a meeting and a number of expected participants. The conference server may then reserve an appropriate amount of resources (e.g., number of ports or permitted simultaneous connections during the call) for the planned meeting in the requested duration.
Several users are invited to participate in such a planned meeting. At least some of the invited users join the meeting in the planned duration and the users joining the meeting are referred to as participants. Some of the users may join and/or leave the conference in the duration of the meeting. Irrespective, the meeting is said to be “in progress” when at least one of the participants is part of the meeting.
When the meeting is in progress, the conference server enables participants to exchange content such as audio (e.g., spoken word of participants), video (e.g., images of participants and/or any presentations type content), files, messages (text), etc., thereby facilitating conducting of the planned meeting.
The inventors of the subject application have noticed that there are several situations in which a participant of a meeting in progress needs to manage subsequent meetings (i.e., those starting after the meeting in progress). For example, an extended duration of the meeting in progress may result in a possible overlap with a next planned meeting, thereby necessitating a participant to manage the resulting conflict. Alternatively, participants of the meeting in progress may wish to plan/schedule a “follow-up” meeting to continue/update the agenda/discussion of the meeting in progress.
The inventors have observed that a participant of a meeting in progress faces considerable difficulty in managing the conflict with subsequent meetings and also in planning follow-up meetings. The inventors therefore propose solutions which simplify management of subsequent meetings for participants of a meeting in progress.
In the drawings, like reference numbers generally indicate identical, functionally similar, and/or structurally similar elements. The drawing in which an element first appears is indicated by the leftmost digit(s) in the corresponding reference number.